Many NHL teams talked this summer about how they could use the kind of pepper that free agent Steve Ott brings to the table.

But he’s not leaving the shadow of the Gateway Arch. Unlike goalie Ryan Miller, who also joined the St. Louis Blues from the struggling Buffalo Sabres and then headed to greener pastures with Vancouver, Ott was re-signed on Thursday for two years at $5.2 million US.

The scrappy Ott’s return had much to do with the anticipated departure of forward Vladimir Sobotka to the KHL.

Blues general manager Doug Armstrong told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that, when he “got that information, I circled back with other players that we were talking to — Steve Ott being one — and we came to a conclusion with Steve.”